Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani is a forty-three year old mother of two children, 16 & 20 year old respectively. Sakine and her boyfriend killed her husband. Her boyfriend is sentenced to death for the killing and Sakine has been sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery.

Both Sakine's children and her lawyer tried everything they could to stop the sentence however her stoning sentence has been confirmed. Sakine is in Tabriz prison awaiting her imminent stoning sentence.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

There are less than two months to go to our November 21 rally, which will be held from 1200-1400 at North Carriage Drive in London’s Hyde Park to mark Universal Children’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The rally aims to raise still further our opposition to Sharia and religious-based laws in Britain and the world, including the imposition of Sharia this year in Somalia and Pakistan's Swat region and of the ‘rape laws’ in Afghanistan. It also aims to show our solidarity with people standing up to political Islam everywhere, including in Iran, and our support for universal rights and secularism. The rally will also defend the right to asylum for those who have fled Sharia and calls for an end to racism and cultural relativism.

Please try to come if you can. It is important for decent people everywhere to stand up to the right-wing political Islamic movement and defend humanity. Doing so will also help push back the far right in its attempts at hijacking the issue of Sharia law to advance its anti-immigrant and racist agenda.

Tell others about the rally and encourage them to join. Also please sign our petition calling for a ban on Sharia law if you haven’t. Over 17,000 people have done so already and they represent only the tip of the iceberg of opposition.

Also don’t forget about our art competition, which is open to all artists. We have already received some exciting pieces and hope to show them at a gallery exhibition. The deadline for submitting any work exposing the discriminatory nature of religious – based tribunals and encouraging equal rights is November 1.

You can find out more about the rally, art competition, petition, our media coverage, speaking engagements and other activities on our new and improved website, thanks to Nick Djgrubson: http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/.

Please also sign up to the International Coalition for Women’s Rights if you haven’t already done so. This is particularly important given that women face the brunt of Sharia law. You can find out more here: http://www.equalrightsnow-iran.com/discriminatory_laws.html

Another important initiative to support is Iran Solidarity. The suppression of a 1979 people’s revolution by the Islamic movement changed the face of the world; a revolution against the Islamic Republic of Iran will help to break the back of the political Islamic movement internationally and herald a new dawn. It is crucial for people everywhere to support the people of Iran in their battle ahead. You can find out more and sign up to it here: http://www.iransolidarity.org.uk/. If you are able to, please volunteer half an hour in the upcoming year to do an act of solidarity with people of Iran in Trafalgar Square from 1730-1800 hours. This has now been going on for nine weeks. You can see the various acts here: http://www.iransolidarity.blogspot.com/.

And do contact us if you would like to volunteer to help organise the rally, submit art for the competition, invite us to speak at an event you are organising or for more information. We also need help in supporting the right to asylum for those who have fled Sharia law. You might have heard of our success in securing the release from immigration detention of an ‘apostate’ ex-Muslim but he and others like him need more assistance to gain their right to asylum.

And finally, don’t forget to donate to One Law for All. We urgently need money to do all that still needs to be done to get rid of Sharia. Every bit helps so please do take the time to send us a cheque made payable to One Law for All or by donating via Paypal by visiting http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/donate.html.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

M. Ahmadinejad is addressing the United Nations on Wednesday. He is the President of a country that has executed and stoned people in their thousands and in the last three decades, has systematically violated human rights. Islamic government of Iran is a fascist and inhumane government and in the last three months the world has witnessed its criminal acts against the people taking part in the uprising.

Repression, arrests, intimidation, brutal torture and rape and sexual violence against political prisoners in Kahrizak and other prisons are just a few examples of the criminal capacity of this government.

During Ahmadinejad’s presidency, hundreds have been hung or stoned. His government executed Delara Darabi, a 21-year-old child offender. This is the same regime that hung Fatemeh Haghighat Pajooh, along with 8 others, in front of her children in Evin prison.

Stoning has been used during his presidency; oppression of people has been wide-spread. People’s rights have been more widely abused, criminal acts have increased and sexual apartheid has been more strictly imposed. Allowing him to address the United Nations is shameful. In fact, he should be arrested and prosecuted for committing these crimes.

The International Committee against Execution and The International Committee against Stoning are calling for Ahmadinejad and other key government officials to be prosecuted for committing crime against humanity. We call on the public to support this demand and voice their protest against this regime from 23-26 September.

Long live Iranian people’s struggle against the Islamic government of IranWe say NO to executionWe say NO to inhumane Islamic rules

Mina Ahadi minaahadi@aol.com 0049 177 569 24 13

Farshad Hosseinifarshadhoseini@yahoo.com0031-633602627

The International Committee against ExecutionThe International Committee against Stoning19 September 2009

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Political prisoner Mansour Ossanlu's health is deteriorating. A year ago he was transferred to Reja’i Shahr prison, west of Tehran.

He has been denied permission to leave the prison for treatment for pre-existing medical problems, and new ones gained through the denial of access to treatment. He was denied treatment by the case judge, despite a referral by the prison doctor following his fourth medical examination.

Despite the recommendation by the Coroner, and Medical Examiner, at the end of last year that Mansour be treated outside the prison, the authorities continue to refuse to allow him to leave for treatment.

Mansour Ossanlu is leader of the Union of Workers of the Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), was arrested on 10 July 2007.

Background information

Mansour Ossanlu was previously detained for eight months, from December 2005 to August 2006, and again for a month from November to December 2006 in connection with his trade union activities. He had reportedly been sentenced to five years' imprisonment in May 2007, but was believed to be free on bail at the time of his arrest.

In October 2007, upon learning that Ossanlu was at risk of losing his eyesight unless he was given urgent medical treatment that was being denied him by the prison authorities, Amnesty International and the Global Unions mounted an urgent appeal which resulted in his transfer to hospital. Though his eyesight has been saved, he continues to be denied urgently needed medical treatment.

Send letters of protest to the Islamic regime of Iran. For more information on where to send letters, click here.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

A Report has been published by Amnesty International on September 1, 2009 declares that there are 1000 persons in Iraq awaiting to be executed including 9 women, 150 of which have exhausted all possibilities of appeal. The report also signifies that executions by the ruling Islamic and nationalist government in Iraq has been doubled and that many of the prisoners regularly face torture to force confessions with complete lack of legal rights for prisoners and detainees.

The Islamic-nationalist government in Iraq claims that the execution is “very necessary” in order to stop the violence and terrorism according to its so-called minister of “human-rights”!. This position, in fact, has nothing to do with the claim of this government to stop violence or terrorism. On the contrary, the government only wishes to justify violence and brutality that it commits in order to strengthen its position through maintaining terror. Both sides of the conflicting poles in Iraq, the so-called state forces, and the Islamic and nationalist groups opposed to that state, are responsible for the blood sheds and the attacks on the rights of people in Iraq. These brutal forces have nothing to do with, neither ending terror, nor with any degree of human decency. Those forces compete to use the most barbaric of methods to galvanize their positions and they deliberately use intimidation and fear for that end.

The claim of the Iraqi government that death penalty decreases terrorism and “violence” is a lie. The forces of this religious, sectarian, nationalistic, ethnic, and tribal government itself, practice, on the largest scale, and according to international reports, torture, detention, assassinations, and organized terrorism. With the collaboration of the US forces and its allies, it has been committing atrocities against the people of Iraq. Their records from the prisons of Abu Ghraib, Boka, and the vaults of the Ministry of Interior, in addition to the presence of heads of Islamic and nationalist terrorist militias inside its apparatus, government, and “parliament”, are few examples of the true identity of these groups and the idiocy of their claim that execution aims to reduce “violence”.

Our party strongly condemns execution under any pretext or justification. We consider execution and capital punishment as a premeditated crime committed by the state against its citizens; a barbaric inhumane method for punishment that does not contribute, and has nothing to do with, the so-called end of violence, fighting crimes, or establish safety and security. Establishing security in Iraq does not pass through these militias but, to the contrary, only through pushing them aside; a complete ending of US occupation, and disarmament of all Islamic and nationalist groups which will restore normalcy and civility in Iraq. The struggle to establish security can not be separated from the struggle to end all forms of brutality and barbarity in society.

Our party calls for all humanitarian organizations; political parties, workers trade unions, socialist and women organizations, egalitarian, secular, and civil groups and individuals to exert pressure on the Iraqi government to stop the execution of 1000 prisoners. Send protest letters, organize protests, talk to humanitarian international organizations, fight to stop the crimes of execution that the Iraqi government is perpetrating. We draw the attention to 9 women who are awaiting their execution while their “confessions” were taken under torture. Our party will endeavor to expose this government and its practices against the people of Iraq to the whole world. We call upon the people and their civilized forces to join our struggle to completely prohibit capital punishment and execution.

Stop the Execution of 1000 Prisoners in Iraq!Prohibit Capital Punishment as Premeditated Crime!The Left Worker-communist Party of Iraq - LWPI2 September 2009

Friday, September 04, 2009

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit New York and attend a United Nation conference in mid-September 2009. During his stay in New York, a meeting between Ahmadinejad and some "trusted" Iranians residents of the United States will take place.

It is well known that Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are the leaders of Islamic Republic’s crime machine. The whole world has witnessed how civilians have been shot to death by the orders from these two murders. Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are also responsible for the systematic abuse and torture in Kahrizak prison of those female and male who were arrested during the recent protests.

Ahmadinejad and Khamenei are responsible for Nedas Sohrab’s death along with more than a hundred other protestors in the past two months. Furthermore, they are guilty of humiliating the arrested protesters, fabricating confession-sessions under the guise of 'trials', and the broadcasting of the tortured on state television. There are indications that confessions from detainees have been obtained by subjecting them to torture and withholding them without charge or legal representation. The Islamic republic of Iran is a true example of crimes against humanity and they should be arrested and prosecuted.

Ahmadinejad’s crimes have been witnessed by the world, and if they are not more serious than those in the criminal case of Omar Albashir (Sudan's president) for whom the International Court of The Hague issued an arrest warrant, certainly they are not less. Ahamadinajd and his government have committed a broad rang of crimes and they should not be allowed to participate in United Nations General Assembly meeting. If murder, torture and rape are considered crimes, and those who committed it should be punished for their crimes then Ahamadinejad and his government should not be any exceptions.

Worker-Communist Party organizations outside of Iran, in objection to Ahmadinejad’s visit New York announce a global campaign, which is aimed to expand the protests against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In the past two months people, worldwide, have generated a wave of solidarity actions for Iranians. We should not allow the loud voice of Iranian people to be ignored by international authorities, the voice that has been calling to overthrow the criminal regime during the recent protests. We should not allow the grief of family survivors and of those who lost their loved one be dismissed through the presence of Ahmadinejad in New York.

We are calling upon the participation of all human rights activists and all liberal people worldwide to support the Iranian people’s struggles by expressing their strongest objection to the UN for accepting Ahmadinejad's presence.

We would express our protest by holding extensive and widespread demonstrations in front of UN headquarters in New York as well as other parts of world. We would express our protest by holding broad marches and meetings in front of UN offices or Islamic Republic embassies. Our immediate demands are: prosecution of the Islamic Republic authorities and the release of all political prisoners.

[Latest news: The IRI file number at Hague court was issued. Complaints against the IRI will be kept under this number: OTP-CR-777/09 ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Thanks to Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi for the translation:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Secular News reports: On August 18th a press conference featuring hundreds of personalities and thousands of individuals who were known to have withstood brutal torture, took place in front of the International Criminal Courts in The Hague (ICC).

Farshad Hosseini, Mina Ahadi, Shiva Mahboubi, Fareed Arman, Akram Beeronvand, Saeed Partow and Fereshteh Moradi participated in the press conference and discussed at length, the most recent as well as thirty years of crimes committed by the Islamic regime; those crimes include torture, rape, execution of minors and children, assassination of regime opposition members inside and outside Iran.

Demonstrators who turned up at 2 p.m. braving the rainy weather, carried placards of images of those who lost their lives; they gathered to represent all the deceased, those who were tortured and raped by the regimes criminal officials, as well as the families of the victims and whose loved ones blood was spilled for the freedom of Iran, and finally the millions of Iranians whose wish is to prosecute the heads of the Islamic regime. A manifesto was also read by Hosseini, Ahadi, Moradi, Partow and Arman in Farsi, English and Dutch.

During the demonstration Mina Ahadi and Farshad Hosseini who represented the International Committee Against Stoning and International Committee Against Execution met and held discussions and deliberated with officials from the ICC prosecution unit. Other than the presentation of a detailed report of the crimes committed by the Islamic Republic during the last thirty years, a request for an investigation of said crimes as crimes against humanity, by the ICC was also made. A separate report based on the recent crimes which consisted of a list of one hundred names of those who are known to have been killed during the recent months as well as the illegal and secret burials in mass graves was also presented to said ICC officials. The issue of the tortures performed on detainees in prisons, rapes of political prisoners were mentioned as well. Ms. Ahadi and Mr. Hosseini also reitereated the nature and severity of the crimes perpetrated by the Islamic regime against humanity and explained that any delay or compromise in this matter, where a concrete and effective international action plan for halting this course of genocide, whatever the reason, will lead to the continuation of these crimes. Every day the ICC delays the investigation of these crimes, will be another day will be an extension for the criminals perpetrating said crimes. Today international organizations who head up the ICC’s role is to stand as a buffer and is duty-bound to prosecute criminals and as such they must act swiftly in taking action against those responsible for such atrocities. The request to prosecute the heads of that Islamic regime is the request of millions of Iranian and hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs, in either a personal, political or public form.

The officials from the prosecution unit of the ICC responded with diligence and readiness in accepting the reports presented to them; therefore based on the presented information a file for the investigation of the leaders of the Islamic regime was opened and the case number will be provided on August 31st which will then be distributed. The officials from the prosecution unit also explained the legal methodology of the complaint process and in response stated that the accelerated steps taken against the Islamic regime was as a result of the large and continued complaints against the government of Iran and as such immediate action will be taken to examine the evidence. The officials from the prosecution unit also added that additionally they are currently addressing four cases of crimes against humanity in countries such as Uganda, The Congo, Sudan and Central Africa.

The International Committee Against Execution continues its activities to inform public opinion on the topic of the executions and the general crimes committed by the Islamic Republic. For more information or assisting us regarding this case, please contact us.